Amen
by Tashilover
Summary: Castiel felt it was blasphemous; but he was planning to steal from a church.


A/N: Never bet against **DeanLovesCastiel**. She'd not only kick your ass, but she would also laugh, take pictures, and put them up on Facebook.

So here is the fic I promised to write if I lost. R/R, peeps.

()

The church was a humble little thing. It sat, maybe, only a hundred people in its pews. The walls needed a new paint job, the roof needed repairing, and slowly but surely, the hymn books were falling apart. The church by no means was in any danger of closing down, but its first priority was to direct the money it collected to the needy. The roof, walls, and hymns could wait.

Castiel surprised himself when he first appeared in front of the church. His thoughts were not automatically focused upon his Father, but rather wishing he could something about the front door. The hinges looked rusted.

Why he'd even bother caring about such consequential things? He brushed it out of his mind as soon as he thought it.

He was not here for the door, he was here chasing a rumor. He had heard this church contained special relics of saints. Castiel tended to scoff at humans canonizing one another, but he cannot deny that there were a few saints who held the power to look upon an angel's true form.

Maybe he could find something here that might lead him to his Father.

His plan was simple. Get in the church, search, and leave.

But when Dean had heard about it, he threw a crumpled piece of paper at Castiel's head. "Do you like scaring people, Cas? If you pop into that church, then pop right out, people are going to freak. We don't need a whole bunch of church goers invoking the apocalypse."

"It _is _apocalypse, Dean."

"What we don't need is panic. We're not going to risk a whole town freaking out on itself on the off-chance the relics you're looking for aren't there."

It made sense. And while Castiel thought his way was faster, he eventually resigned and agreed to Dean's plan.

Which explained the cleric outfit.

Dean had insisted if Castiel was going to poke around a church, he might as well look the part. At first he nearly protested- "It's blasphemous for me to wear that."- but quickly shut his mouth when he remembered he was planning to steal relics from a church.

It was Sunday.

The actual priest, a young man barely in his twenties, was greeting his parishioners as they entered the church. He was slightly chubby cheeked, freckles and red hair. One older woman even pinched his cheeks and cooed at him. He politely brushed her away.

When the priest spotted Castiel, he gently excused himself and came over. "Hello," he greeted. "I wasn't aware the church was going to have a guest today, Father…"

"Castiel," he answered immediately, then mentally cringed. Sam had came up with the perfect fake name for him and already Castiel had blew it.

"Father Castiel," the priest hummed. "That is… the angel of Thursday, is it not?"

"Yes."

"How lovely. I'm Father Daniel. It is nice to meet you." He held out his hand.

Castiel shook his hand, remembering not to hesitate like he did when he first met Sam. "Nice to meet you."

"So, Father, what brings you out to our humble little church today? Are you here to observe?"

"Actually, I'm here because I'm curious about the relics the church houses."

"Oh, are you referring to the golden cross held by Saint Jonah?"

"Yes."

"I have it in my office. I was just cleaning it. Come," Father Daniel motioned towards the open doors of the church. "We'll go look at it after Mass."

"Actually, I'd prefer-"

"Father?" Daniel turned around to the young girl standing by the doors. "We're all seated, Father. We can begin when you're ready."

"Thank you, we're coming." Daniel laid a hand on Castiel's shoulder and steered him inside, either ignoring or not noticing Castiel's reluctance. The angel didn't want to waste two hours when he could be gone within ten minutes.

But as he found himself being led down the aisle, every eye in the room focused on him and Daniel, Castiel knew he couldn't escape now. To disappear now would certainly cause panic.

Daniel gestured to the seat at the very front, reserved for the chorus boys as he took the podium. Castiel sat, and the young boy next to him immediately leaned in a little closer, tilting the Bible in his hands so Castiel could see what page they were on.

Castiel looked down and frowned. _That whole chapter never happened._

"Thank you everyone for coming on this glorious day," Daniel began, his voice echoing strongly. "First, I would like to welcome Father Castiel who has come to bless us with his presence today."

A few people said 'hello', though Castiel didn't respond to any of them.

"Let us begin."

()

The boy's name was Jason. He was only ten and was proud that he shimmied up next to Father Castiel and immediately shared his Bible with him. He'd felt it was a sign of him growing up, the way he didn't even have to think about sharing. He just did.

But now he was regretting it.

There was something off about Father Castiel. When Jason offered to share the Bible, Castiel stared _so hard _at him, he was afraid he did something wrong.

Eventually the Father took over the duty of holding the Bible (thank goodness, Jason's small hands were cramping), but didn't offer the same sharing techniques. Castiel did not tilt the Bible slightly his way so he could see, nor did he seem to notice the way Jason kept stretching out his neck to see what page they were on.

It wouldn't have mattered, because within two minutes after being handed the Bible, Father Castiel started to flip through the book regardless of where Father Daniel was at.

Even worse, he _talked. _Not loud enough for others to hear, but enough that Jason blushed at the irritated tones Castiel took on, as if the Father was chastising him instead.

"This did not happen."

"Wrong. This is wrong. How can it be so inaccurate?"

"This doesn't make any sense."

That went on for a full hour.

Needless to say, while Jason felt guilty for wishing Castiel could just go away, he felt so relieved when Father Daniel announced, "Now for the last hour, I think I would like to turn the reigns over to our guest. Father Castiel, would you like talk about one of your favorite passages?"

Castiel jerked in his seat. "What?"

"Come," Daniel gestured him to the podium.

Castiel really didn't want to. He knew his interactions with humans were too far and in between, and he's pretty sure Father Daniel thought oddly of him. He did not need a room full of God fearing people thinking ill will of an angel.

Awkwardly, he stood up, feeling all one hundred and three pairs of eyes trained on him. He once could lead legions of angels to combat the spell of hell, commanded troops of three thousand with just a wave of his wing and here he was, feeling embarrassed and self-conscious in a roomful of humans. He felt pathetic.

It got worse when he actually got to the podium. Because now he could see every eye staring at him.

He looked down at the large Bible on the podium to avoid making eye contact. There were intricate drawings on the borders of the pages of angels, flowers and golden crosses. It was all very beautiful, all very wrong. He closed the book so fast he felt his hair sweep up in the resulting gust.

People started whispering. Perhaps closing the book so dramatically wasn't the way to go.

But acting like a… chickenshit, as he heard Dean put it, was also not the way to go. He was not going to stand here and lie to them.

Castiel looked back up at the crowd. There were still many waiting patiently for him to start, though he could see a great deal of them were busy checking their watches or cell phones.

Castiel took a second to collect his thoughts. Then he began.

"Yes, it's true Eve was tempted by the serpent to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. But in the end, it was her choice. She chose to listen to the serpent, she chose to pluck the apple, she chose to persuade Adam to eat the apple. So in the end, whose fault was it really? Was it Eve, was it the serpent, or was it God, who gave her free will to begin with?"

People's mouths dropped. At his right, Castiel could see Father Daniel stiffening.

He continued. "What a lot of people don't know is, demons have rules. They have limits, they have morals. So while much could be blamed on the actions of demons, in the end, it's really just free will. Free will is dangerous and has caused the deaths of millions all around the world."

Daniel stepped forward, whispered low, "Father, I don't think-"

"But," Castiel said, turning his head towards Daniel. The young priest then stepped back, still suspicious, but willing to go along. "there is a reason why angels consider free will God's greatest gift to humans.

"Let me tell you the tale of two very special brothers who defied both heaven and hell because it was the right thing to do…"

Castiel gave no specifics. No last names, no dates, no locations. He told, to the best of his ability, the story of the Righteous Man. In truth, the Winchester Gospels were really supposed to be about Dean. Once the apocalypse was over, and Michael had struck down his brother, the angels were supposed to spread the word of the Gospel, to let the world know what had happened.

Sam was to be known as the brother that sent Dean to hell, the brother that released Lucifer, and the brother who died, struck down by Michael. Even if people were to argue that Sam was only trying to help, that it wasn't truly his fault, the end result was the same. It was Sam's fault and he deserved no sympathy.

Castiel wondered how heaven was taking the Gospels now that most of their plans have gone to waste. If Sam and Dean win this war, it's quite possible the Gospels will simply fade into nothingness, forever forgotten on some back shelf in a paperback book store. If Sam and Dean loses…

Who knows. Maybe Zachariah will edit the Gospels so Dean comes out victorious, regardless what happened after Lucifer rose.

But that was not the point.

"Faith is easy to come by, it's easy to keep," Castiel said to the listening congregation. There were still quite a few who kept giving him suspicious, disapproving looks, but seemed resigned to hear the ending. "Losing faith is hard, because no one wants to lose faith. And it always comes at the worst of times, when you need it the most."

Castiel took a breath. "Sam and Dean never had faith in God. They didn't need to. They only had faith in each other and the people around them."

He didn't know how to end it. So he just said, "Thank you," and stepped away from the podium. He retook his seat, not noticing how the young choir boy inched away from him.

"I think what Father Castiel was trying to say is," Daniel said to the stunned audience. "That you never really lose faith as long as you have faith in your family and friends."

Only a few of the congregation nodded in agreement. Most were still sitting there, speechless, looking at each other for explanation. "Bless you all, and thank you for coming," Daniel smiled to all of them. "Amen."

"Amen," they echoed back.

"Amen," Castiel whispered.

()


End file.
